Académique Documents
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ARTE 344
FACILITATION SHEET
Title:
Middle School Organization: Practices Reflecting Values
Author(s):
Paul S. George
Source/Date:
Association for Curriculum and Development (1992)
Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences):
George states that Middle School curriculum does not have to revolve around subjects.
Instead, more effort should be placed into socialization and cooperative learning.
Short Overview (Including at least 2-3 important quotes):
George begins with an anecdote of a consultant coming into a middle school and
changing the way the course leaders view curriculum structure. He goes on to list examples of
methods in middle schools that have shown positive results. In the section Establishing Guidance
and Advisory Groups, he states that between years 5 and 8, a reconfiguration occurs that
separates the students as well as the teachers from a reliable and familial bond. A way to prevent
this is Teacher Advisors (M. James 1986).
He goes on to discuss the building of team identity and the belonging that can
foster during these developmental years. Then he explores the option of Interdisciplinary
Exploration. Students want to master rules of their cultures and of its specific vocations and
avocations. They want to use language precisely, not allusively: they want to draw pictures that
are photographically realistic, not fanciful or abstract: and they expect a strict adherence to rules
in dress, behavior, games, moral situations and other cultural activities, brooking little
deviation. (Gardner 1989, p. 158).
His final point is how to organize the new systems. In a system so bound by
subject, how do we go about rearranging it. After inflexible times such as arrival and departure,
lunch, and classes taught as off-team teachers have been determined, each team of teachers
should take responsibility for working out a team schedule for the time that remains. (George
72). He suggests that the education system move away from the direction it has pursued the past
decade and a half and develop social skills as well as academic skill. Dont limit science to just
physics, biology, and chemistry, but provide students with opportunities to see what those things
do in the real world. Show them what artists do in the real world. Teach through experience and
cooperation as opposed to drones with textbooks.